Josie Harris, who has a child with Floyd Mayweather Jr., filed a defamation lawsuit against Mayweather on Tuesday related to a September 2010 incident in which she alleges Mayweather beat her in front of her children.

The suit, a copy of which was obtained by Deadspin, seeks damages in excess of $20 million from claims of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Mayweather served two months in jail in 2012 after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of domestic battery violence in the incident, which occurred on Sept. 9, 2010.

Last month, ahead of Saturday's highly anticipated world welterweight championship fight against Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather discussed the incident with Yahoo Global News anchor Katie Couric. Mayweather claimed he did not harm Harris, saying, "Did I restrain a woman that was on drugs? Yes, I did. So if they say that's domestic violence, then, you know what? I'm guilty. I'm guilty of restraining someone."

"Around five o'clock in the morning on September 9, 2010, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., entered Josie Harris's home. He found her asleep on the family-room sofa. Already worked up into a jealous rage, the world-champion boxer then grabbed sleeping Harris by her hair and started to viciously beat her—punching, striking, kicking, stomping, dragging, and tossing her around the house—all right in front of their frightened children."

The suit then claims Mayweather "knowingly and maliciously lied about his beating of Harris" in the interview with Couric.

"Instead, Mayweather pointed his finger at Harris, labeling her as a drug-abuser and an aggressor who the world-class boxer had to 'restrain,'" the suit reads.

In a police report filed after the September 2010 incident, Koraun Mayweather—the son of Mayweather and Harris—wrote that he saw Mayweather hit and kick Harris. Koraun was 10 years old at the time.